What Wyatt Eats.

Let's talk...toddler food! Since weaning Wyatt (which you can read all about here), he has become quite the little eater. He can definitely be picky at times, but overall I would say he's really great at eating the food that I give him, and sometimes I swear he eats as much as I do! The past several years I have tried to make vegetables and "whole foods" more of a priority in my own diet, so it's been a fun challenge for me to try to pass that down to Wyatt. I definitely do not want to give the impression that Wyatt eats absolutely anything I put in front of him, because he definitely doesn't, and I do not consider myself an expert on toddler food either, by any means, but that being said....we've found a lot of foods that work for us and that I feel comfortable feeding & nourishing him with, so I thought I would share in case it might help anyone looking for new ideas for what to feed their toddler. And if nothing else, I love preparing food for Wyatt and documenting some of our go-to meals at this stage in his life is a fun little memento for me.
A few things to note...
Most of what I am showing are just Wyatt's lunches. For breakfast we usually stick to the same things...I usually feed him either oatmeal with banana or blueberries & a little cinnamon, or the banana egg pancakes (see recipe at the bottom of this post) with almond butter. He'll eat a scrambled egg, but not usually voluntarily (unless he is really hungry)—so I have to basically feed it to him myself, which takes longer so I don't do it as often.
Wyatt has 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom, and no molars yet. I keep telling myself this is why he basically refuses to eat any kind of meat that I try to give him. (He knows it will be hard to chew so he doesn't even bother??) To make sure he gets enough protein, I will usually mince up some meat and mix it with mashed avocado or sweet potato (see meals #2, 6, and 8) and sneak it in that way. We'll see if anything changes when he gets more teeth. (He also refuses to eat broccoli and cauliflower. I'm assuming it's just a texture thing.)
One of Wyatt's favorite veggies is beets. I'll eat beets, but I don't love them, so I'm always amazed that he eats them so enthusiastically. I buy the pre-cooked baby beets from Trader Joe's so all I have to do is slice them up for him. Soo easy and convenient and he's so crazy about them. Anyways, that's one of my time-saver tips. :)
Wyatt doesn't have any allergies and I try not to keep any food groups away from him, even though there is controversy about things like dairy or wheat or whatever. We go out to eat for dinner twice a week, usually to Mexican restaurants, and we usually just get Wyatt a quesadilla and rice & beans, which he gobbles down. I figure if he eats fairly healthy the rest of the times, that a greasy, cheesy quesadilla every once in a while isn't so bad.
Here's a little breakdown of the meals that are pictured above:
1 // strawberries and banana & egg pancakes (see pancake recipe below) with almond butter
2 // butternut squash, mashed avocado with chicken, peas
3 // turkey sandwich, cottage cheese, leftover sweet potato fries (recipe here), and "red pepper relish"—something I just made up that Wyatt really likes...diced red pepper and mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with salt, pepper, and granulated onion & garlic.
4 // homemade corn & black bean chili, avocado slices, cheese, peas
5 // avocado, steamed carrots, peas, beets, homemade meatball (like I mentioned before, he doesn't usually eat meat, but somehow he was okay with taking bites of this meatball. Go figure.)
6 // zucchini, beets, avocado mashed with cauliflower, banana
7 // avocado, cheese, blueberries, mexican quinoa (recipe here)
8 // grape tomatoes, cooked asparagus, mashed sweet potato with chicken, grapes

BANANA & EGG PANCAKES 1/2 ripe banana 1 egg 1/2 Tbs coconut flour lots of cinnamon a sprinkle of salt (mash banana well, then add rest of ingredients and mix until just combined. makes 2 pancakes.)

Any other food that your toddler loves?? I'm always trying to give Wyatt a good variety, and I've been feeling like I want to introduce some more things to him but not sure what. Would love to hear your ideas!